Excruciating delay gave way to deadly deployment

Col. J.B. Burton, right, commander of the 1st Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, watches his troops pass in review at the conclusion of the brigade's departure ceremony in Schweinfurt, Germany on Wednesday. The 2nd BCT is deploying to Iraq.


Excruciating delay gave way to deadly deployment
By Mark St.Clair, Stars and Stripes
Stripes European Travel, Thursday, January 24, 2008

The “Dagger” Brigade first got word to prepare for deployment to Iraq in November 2005.

Two years later — after the Army threw the 1st Infantry Division unit two curveballs — many 2nd Brigade Combat Team soldiers were still in the sandbox.

First the soldiers received warning orders in November telling them to prepare for a May deployment. Then the Pentagon decided to change plans, leaving in limbo the unit’s more than 4,000 soldiers and some 3,000 family members living in Schweinfurt, Germany.

The final deployment order came two months later while the unit was on a training exercise in Grafenwöhr.

“I know that both our soldiers and our families have shouldered a heavy burden of anticipation as we have waited for a final word on this brigade combat team’s deployment. That word is here, and I know that we are fully ready,” brigade commander Col. J.B. Burton told his troops on July 16, 2006.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51858



uhc comment: 59 soldiers died during this deployment. Their average age was 24.